Was looking at a hand held GPS and came across the Garmin Rhino 130.Certainly looks like it would be of great use in Line Searches when there are visibility obsticles as it allows you to track multiple other Rhino units.Anyone using one of these yet??
I was really considering those, but from all the info I could get about them, they are very short-range radios, not even close to the normal range of an FRS radio. You'd almost be able to tell to anybody in distance of the radio. I read a comment that a couple military units in the 'sandy areas' tried them out, and were very unimpressed.If they were cheaper, it'd prolly be ok, but for the cost, you might as just get a good hand-held GPS and use the ISR radio that NHQ paid for.
I wonder why the poor performance??The technology is very intriguing, but the performance HAS to be there to back it up.
Quote from: abysmal on March 26, 2005, 06:56:07 PMWas looking at a hand held GPS and came across the Garmin Rhino 130.Certainly looks like it would be of great use in Line Searches when there are visibility obsticles as it allows you to track multiple other Rhino units.Anyone using one of these yet??No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn once.Actually, I've had the Rino 120 in my possession since getting it as a Christmas Present in 03. I can't complain about the range, it's seems to be on par with most other FRS units I've used. I'm used to 3-5 Watts out on VHF, so even the best FRS radio pales in comparison anyway. There are four more of my Squadron mates who own rinos of various lineage. one 110, two 120s and even one 130. We've used them at large airshows and they were a lot of fun.I also have started to use mine for Geocaching, and it's been spot-on.
I wouldn't say that feature would prompt me to buy it. As I mentioned, I got it as a gift, with no real intention of using it for CAP purposes.Having said that, we did use them at a few airshows and while it was "fun" I can't say it was the best thing since camelbacks. The user you want to track has to X-mit to display their position on your unit. If I want to know where my people are, I'll simply ask them. OTOH, it can be useful for other things, like monitoring participants on a parade route, and various other uses I have not yet had the foresight to implement.In regards to CAP missions, I believe ISR is a better choice for local communications.
The other thing is that if your line search is so big that you can't maintain good visual on everybody, maybe you need to use different spacing/cover less area per pass.